Morning Brief — Jan. 25, 2013

Today’s Morning Brief is sponsored by CanadiansDeserveMore.ca. Two of Canada’s greatest media organizations are seeking approval to join together as a truly national, private, bilingual media group – all in an effort to provide MORE to Canadians.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford did her best to explain her government’s alarming deficits in a televised address last night, citing a “bitumen bubble” for the dramatic shift in the province’s fiscal health. This bubble will cost Alberta $1 billion this year and as much as $6 billion next. It all makes sense until one asks how a jurisdiction with nearly full employment and a relatively young and healthy citizenry can be running Ontario-like deficits on a per capita basis. But defiant, Redford is maintaining that the province won’t slash spending to core services such as health and education, nor reduce funding to municipalities. Nor will the government raise taxes or introduce new levies. “It is not good enough to take the easy way out and raise taxes.” There is the province’s Sustainability Fund, created “to protect program spending from volatile revenue downturns and to offset annual cash deficits,” but it has under $5 billion.

From one economic trouble zone to another: Ontario, where the Ontario Liberal Party will elect a new leader this weekend. Delegates were already swarming the streets of Toronto on Thursday night, swapping notes on the various hospitality suites. Sandra Pupatello made the biggest splash, hosting her kick-off party at The Phoenix, where Serena Ryder played a 40-minute set. Kathleen Wynne’s crowd packed a bar a few blocks away. Our Laura Stone also spoke with candidate Gerard Kennedy recently.

Canada is following Britain’s lead and urging citizens to leave Benghazi, and likely most of North Africa. The warning comes after last week’s hostage taking in Algeria and British PM David Cameron’s announcement of intelligence showing a credible and imminent threat against Western interests in the Libyan port city.

Anyone who expects Canada’s commitment to the Mali mission to be short, here’s some land in Florida… As expected, DND announced that Canada’s supply plane will continue to provide support to the French mission through Feb. 15, but plans are already being drawn up by various NATO partners for a longer and deeper commitment to Mali and the region.

After a brisk morning jog last weekend, Morgan Stanley’s ‘bearish’ chief economist Joachim Fels had a startling change of heart. “Could we just be witnessing a synchronous revival of medium-term growth dynamics in the world’s three large ‘old’ economies, the United States, Japan and Germany?” he asked. It would appear, at least to him, the answer is yes.

James Moore, federal minister responsible for B.C., addresses the Surrey Board of Trade to discuss federal priorities for 2013 and looks towards the upcoming federal budget.

In Featured Opinion today:

Chief Theresa Spence’s hunger strike is over and a lot of people are calling it a failure. Some failure, says Michael Harris — who but Spence can take credit for changing the political narrative in this country and forcing the federal government to pay attention to the grievances and aspirations of First Nations?

From the Washington Post we have Anne Applebaum asking the question: if the United States pulls back from overseas military entanglements, who’s next in line to play global cop? Would you believe the European Union?

Paul Boothe takes a run at a recent blog post criticizing the relationship between journalists and academics. Yes, he says, reporters do cite academics as ‘experts’ in cases where those academics might not know what they’re talking about — but the fault belongs as much to academia as it does to the Fourth Estate.

From the Fraser Institute, we have economists Jason Clemens and Niels Veldhuis pointing out the potential silver lining for Canada in the United States’ rolling budget crisis.

And again from the Post, an editorial arguing that President Obama has run out of room to procrastinate on the Keystone XL pipeline project.

In the NHL, the Senators won, as did Montreal and the Oilers. Toronto lost.

And, finally, President Barack Obama’s choice of John Kerry, an environmental hawk, as the U.S.’s top diplomat is the strongest signal to the international community — and Washington’s political insiders — that Obama 2.0 is truly committed to striking deals designed to save the world.

With that, we leave you back where we started with words from Robbie Burns: Dare to be honest and fear no labour.